Wine and chocolate: two great tastes that taste surprisingly great together(2)
You might think that a chocolate-infused wine would go great with the chocolate. But you'd be wrong. In fact, the two canceled each other out, leaving neither a winner. The lesson? Drink the Sweet Noche on its own, possibly with some sharp, salty cheese. And eat Mary's to-die-for dark chocolate orange creams on their own ... slowly.
We tried several more wines (as you can see in the box to the left) but, by the end of the tasting, even the most die-hard chocoholics among us had had enough. At that point, none of us could tell if our buzz was the result of the wine or the sugar.
As I dialed the phone to order pizza and popped the cork on a decidedly unsweet bottle of red, though, I knew we had achieved our goal: We'd learned something new about wine and had a fabulous time doing it!
Wine and chocolate
We tasted the following wines (purchased from the wineries themselves, Total Wines in Newport News and The Wine Seller in Williamsburg) with the following chocolates from Virginia's Finest Chocolates (www.chocolategifts.com).
2006 Chambourcin, James River Cellars, $14; paired with milk chocolate vanilla caramel
Australian Premium Fine Muscat Victoria, R.L. Buller & Son, $18; paired with dark chocolate caramel
Sweet Noche, Cooper Vineyards, $18; paired with dark chocolate orange cream
Sweet Danielle (Virginia Red Table Wine) 2007, Philip Carter Winery, $29; paired with solid dark chocolate and a milk chocolate-covered cherry.
Vin Licoureax de Framboise, Williamsburg Winery, $18, paired with a dark chocolate raspberry jelly.
Pinotage, Grayhaven Winery, $30; paired with a solid milk chocolate shamrock and a peanut butter milk chocolate.
